It all started with an innocent wink
by Anna-May1
Summary: Multi chapter story about JoanLock. Takes place after Season 5 Episode 8 so potential spoilers for that and previous episodes. Ive always wanted to write a JoanLock story and what happened at the end of that episode gave me the inspiration. Hope you enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

_I've never written fanfiction before but I couldn't just ignore the wink at the end of Season 5 Episode 8 and I had to write something. I'm not sure how long this will be, but I'm hoping multiple chapters. I hope you enjoy it._

 _Disclaimer: I am only writing this for entertainment and have no claim on any characters._

 _Chapter 1_

 _Watson's point of view:_

Did Sherlock just wink at me?! Joan thought as she heard the front door shut.

"Well that's new" she said to an empty house.

Sherlock had never done anything like that before! Could it mean anything…?

She had been pretty upfront and personal with him over the last few days, asking him questions about his sobriety. And if she was honest with herself there was a different atmosphere between the two of them in the last few weeks. Sherlock seemed more comfortable and closer with her recently, especially after his break up with Fiona.

Maybe she was thinking about it too much. He had only winked at her after all. He might have just had something in his eye!

"Get a grip Joan" Watson said to herself. She put any thoughts about Sherlock to the back of her mind and went up to her room to read.

 _Sherlock's point of view:_

Did I just wink at Joan?! Sherlock thought as he left the brownstone heading to his sobriety meeting.

What did he do that for?! Where did that come from? He had never been so… personal with Joan before. The situation they had, had always been complicated everyone knew that, but even he had to admit that things had been even more different recently.

"Fiona" Sherlock whispered to himself as he walked along the path.

It had changed since he had broken up with Fiona. It had only been a subtle change but it was definitely different. Why though…?

Could the fact that he had experienced a somewhat stable and committed relationship have changed his way of thinking? His way of looking at relationships? The way he looked at Joan…?

"No. No way" Sherlock said aloud to nobody in particular. He was going to have to put that though to the back of his mind, he couldn't think of Joan that way.

Could he…?

To be continued…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next day it was clear that Sherlock and Watson were subtly trying to distance themselves from each throughout the day. Even the Captain and Detective Bell had noticed.

"Is everything alright with you two today? Your both acting weird" asked Marcus.

Sherlock and Watson quickly glanced at each other, and noticing they'd both looked at the same time they quickly turned away.

"What are you on about Detective. We're perfectly alright thank you" said Sherlock. "Now what's this case you called us down here for?"

Even though Marcus knew something was wrong he decided to ignore it and presented the case.

"We were called to the scene by a next-door neighbour who was concerned when she saw what she thought looked like blood on the floor when she looked through the window. Apparently, the women who lived there hadn't been seen for a week, so her neighbour went to check on her. Il warn you now it's not a nice scene in there".

Marcus, Sherlock and Watson went inside the women's house and Watson was taken aback by what she saw. Most of the hallway floor was covered in blood, with a trail that led to the kitchen. They all walked through to find a woman in her perhaps late 30s lying face down in the middle of the kitchen.

"Looks like she was trying to make her way to the back door" said Sherlock. "By the way the blood appears on the floor, I'd say she dragged herself from the front door into here and then collapsed".

"Do we know who she is?" asked Watson.

"Sandra Collins" said Marcus. "39 years old, from Brooklyn, she was the manager of a local restaurant around the corner. Apparently, its doing pretty well."

Sherlock moved around the body and surveyed the scene in front of him.

"What do you think Sherlock, a burglary gone wrong?" asked Watson.

"No I don't think so. Other than the fact that nothing obvious appears to missing, the fact that a chunk of her hair has been recently cut off and she seems to be in clothes that she hasn't taken off in a few days, it would lead me to suggest something more sinister" Sherlock replied.

"A serial killer? Or a kidnap gone wrong perhaps" asked Marcus.

"Yes one of those or perhaps both seems likely" replied Sherlock.

"Il get someone to start interviewing the neighbours to see if they saw anything. Do you want to come with me to the restaurant?" asked Marcus.

"Yes good idea" replied Sherlock and Watson at the same time.

They all turned to leave the scene.

"There's seriously something going on with them two" Marcus said to himself as he walked out of the house.

They all arrived at the restaurant about 10 minutes later and went inside to interview the staff who had just been told about the news and had gathered in the dining area.

"Good afternoon. I'm Detective Bell, this is Sherlock Holmes and Joan Watson. We've just come to ask you a few questions about Miss Collins", Detective Bell told the upset and worried looking group.

"What happened to her do you know yet?" asked a small brown haired woman sitting in the front of the group.

"We don't know yet, that's what we're trying to work out" said Marcus. "What was your name?"

"Erm…Karen. I'm the deputy manager here."

"Ok Karen. Do you have any idea why someone would want to hurt Sandra? Any of you?" Marcus said looking around at the group before him.

"No, no one. Everyone loved Sandra. She was such a great friend and an amazing boss" said Karen.

The rest of the group nodded in agreement.

Sherlock abruptly walked out of the restaurant, and Watson and Marcus quickly followed.

"What is it Sherlock?" asked Watson.

"I don't think any of them are our killer. They all seemed genuinely shocked at the news. Unless there is some damning evidence for any of them I think we can rule them out" Sherlock replied. "I think the best thing to do now is to wait for autopsy results and go from there"

And with that Sherlock and Watson headed back to the brownstone after telling Marcus to keep them updated with any new developments.

 _Watson's point of view:_

Well that was the most awkward cab ride she had ever had. What was wrong with Sherlock? He didn't talk all the way home and barely looked at her all day.

There was an odd tension between them. It must be because of yesterday. Has he been analysing it as well? Watson knew she had told herself to forget it but her reaction to the wink the night before had been playing on her mind. She had immediately started thinking about their relationship and what it could have meant. Did she want it to mean something?

 _Sherlock's point of view:_

Sherlock couldn't stop thinking about his relationship with Joan. It had been on his mind all day, he could barely concentrate at the crime scene. There was definitely an atmosphere between them, he could feel it. Was Joan having similar thoughts? He could never ask her of course. That would be crossing a line of no return. But he had to get over it, he couldn't let it affect him like this. All because he winked at her! Why?! Why did he do that? He needed something to take his mind off it. Off her.

"I'm going to be looking at some old cases downstairs if any news comes from Marcus Watson" Sherlock said as they arrived at the Brownstone.

"Ok, I was going to go upstairs anyway" replied Watson.

They both walked their separate ways, both trying to get some space from the other to try and figure out what they were feeling for each other.

To be continued…


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next morning neither Sherlock or Joan had come to any conclusions about how they were feeling. They were both worried about how much this was playing on their minds however. But there had been an update on the case in the early hours so Sherlock tried to set his increasingly persistent thoughts aside and proceeded to inform Watson of the developments.

"The autopsy results have returned Watson" Sherlock said as he walked into her bedroom unannounced.

Watson jumped and tried to cover herself up as Sherlock had just walked in on her getting dressed.

"Oh. Oh, dear. Sorry Watson" he stuttered as he quickly span around, "I didn't think you were awake. Il meet you downstairs". Sherlock practically ran out of the room and went downstairs to the kitchen.

 _Sherlock's point of view:_

Why! Why did that have to happen today! That had never happened to him and Watson before in all the time they had been living together. He had always been able to tell whether or not she was asleep! He couldn't believe he had just done that and was convinced that this proved that he was completely off his game. He needed to sort himself out quickly. This is probably going to make today more awkward between them though, if they weren't bad enough already! How had he not noticed she was awake?! He was usually so in tuned to her movements! Had he heard her moving around this morning…? "No, just pretend nothing happened" he whispered to himself, and started making a pot of tea.

"What was that?!" Watson asked as she walked in to the kitchen.

 _(So much for pretending it never happened Sherlock thought as he span around.)_

"Sorry Watson I really did think you were asleep. Il make it up to you. Tea?" Sherlock asked as he began pouring, trying to move the conversation on to something else. "Anyway, like I was saying the autopsy results have come in for Miss Collins".

Watson was still a bit confused about what had just happened but decided to ignore it for now. "What does it say?" she asked as she joined Sherlock at the table.

"Miss Collins died from significant blood lose from a single stab wound to the stomach" Sherlock said as he began reading from the report. "It looks like she also had a broken left leg which would explain why she had to drag herself along the floor. There were also multiple bruises on her body and marks on her wrists which suggests that her hands were tied for a significant period of time".

"So, she was kidnapped perhaps a week ago as it was around that time when her neighbour last saw her, kept tied up somewhere, tortured and then brought back to her house where she was killed?" Watson said as she tried to put the pieces together. "Why bring her back to the house though?".

"Im not sure" Sherlock replied. "We should go back to the crime scene and see if we can find anything".

"Ok. Il let Marcus know we're going back" Watson replied.

"So what are we looking for exactly?" Watson asked when they arrived at Sandra's house.

"Anything significant" Sherlock replied as he bent down to assess the blood pattern on the floor.

"Helpful" Watson whispered to herself as she went to look upstairs. She went into the front bedroom, which appeared to belong to Sandra and began looking for anything 'significant'. Something suddenly caught Watsons eye as she walked past the window facing out into the street.

There was a man standing on the other side of the road looking right at Sandra's house.

He then proceeded to look up and saw Watson looking at him from the window. Watson was sure he wasn't one of the members of staff from the restaurant. I suppose he could be a neighbour Watson thought, but in the time it had taken her to think that, the man still hadn't stopped looking at her. She quickly ran out of the room and down the stairs to the front door.

"Watson?! Where are you going?" Sherlock shouted after her.

He followed her outside.

"There was a man staring over here a minute ago. He was standing right there, opposite the house." Watson pointed to the spot where the man had just been and had seemingly disappeared from.

"Did you recognise him?" Sherlock asked.

"No. I would recognise him if I saw him again though. Il describe him to Marcus when we get back to the station and see if he was any of the neighbours that were talked to yesterday. Did you find anything downstairs?" Watson asked.

"No, nothing of interest. We may as well head the station now" Sherlock replied.

Sherlock and Watson headed to the station both wondering what the unknown man had been doing watching the house. Watson was especially bothered as he had seemed to have taken an odd liking to her. The way he had stared bothered her…

To be continued…


End file.
